London: Day One

And with no further adieu, let the saga begin.

It was a pleasant Wednesday morning (April 20) in Castiglion Fiorentino. The rest of the school was going on a field trip. Dave, Jim and I were sleeping in. Dave got up. He got on his bike. He went nuts. He got caught in some hail. He was speeding down a slick hill. A car came. He swerved. His skin ended.

Thus the morning began with Dave suffering serious abrasions on his hip and forearm, not to mention countless little nicks and scratches. That set our timetable back a little bit. Dave got bandaged up and prepared for the adventure. Jim and I packed. My laundry didn’t return from the cleaners and I was forced to bring only my decrepit old pants.

Finally we were ready to leave to head to Rome and the airport around 4. We had to catch the 4:38 R Firenze SMN to Arezzo then switch to the 5:15 IC Napoli train to Roma Termini. We looked good sitting on the train...

Jim


Wounded Dave

Me

The train ride went smoothly. I changed clothes in the train bathroom to get ready for the colder temperatures of London. We got to Rome. We ate at McDonalds. We got on the 8:15 train to Ciampino. The train started going. We couldn’t get a seat it was so packed. From the window we watched as Rome faded away. Soon the train was passing right by the airport. The planes were visable landing and taxiing down the runway. The train blasted through the Ciampino Train Station. We began to panic.

A priest sitting next to where I was standing on the train began to ask me what the problem was. He heard us saying Ciampino, and informed me that we were in fact on an express train which would not stop in Ciampino. Our flight left at 10:10PM, it was 8:30. We disembarked from the train in a little town called nowhere, 20 kilometers south of Ciampino, and began to worry. The next train to Ciampino wouldn’t arrive until 9:15, and would drop us off at the Ciampino station around 9:30, giving us 15 minutes to catch a bus from the station to the air terminal and check-in. Not good enough.

We saw a bus parked nearby and I asked the driver if he was going to Ciampino. He said no. Of course not. Why would he be going to Ciampino? I told him we were desperate to get to the airport. He walked into the diner across the street with me and asked if this town had a taxi service. Of course not. Why would taxi’s be operating in Nowhere Italy?

The people in the diner began talking far too fast for me to understand. This continued for several minutes, until two men in their late twenties offered to give us a ride in their van. For 60 euro. Ouch. We took it.

We rocketed down the Autostrade at about 100MPH. That’s legal in Italy. We swerved through traffic and soared through mixmasters on the south side of Rome. We didn’t stop at a toll booth. We made it to the terminal with 30 minutes to spare. We were going to London.

Thankfully, I didn’t have an anurism during this process. In fact I was pretty calm. But I lost 20 euro because we somehow misread the train schedule. Jim was the only person who actually looked at the train schedule on the way out, and he swore it read Ciampino. Italians like to mix in express trains along their normal regional routes, so I’m sure Jim read it correctly. That train didn’t want to stop in Ciampino, it wanted to stop in Nowhere. And it did. But that couldn’t stop us, because London was our destiny.

Boarding the plane went smoothly, but shortly after takeoff there were two explosions just outside the plane. Lightning strikes. Brilliant. At this point I was beginning to wonder if this trip had been a good idea. It was.

We landed in Stanstead, it took over an hour to get through customs. But everything was in English. It was brilliant. The airport was clean, the stores remained open for late night arrivals, and I was able to buy a Dr. Pepper when I emerged from the Brittish Immigration office. God save the Queen.

Jim prepping for hibernation


We had to wait for the shamelessly comfortable coach

Dave and I rested. Jim slept hard. We woke up at about 6:00 AM and embarked from the Airport, thus beginning London: Day Two. The adventure continues in the next post.

PS... PICTURES ADDED, YES!!!